Is it possible for a record to be too loud?

55 db, I think. It sounds fantastic on every other record I own, but heck that could be why. Would definitely fill out the sound a little bit if it were over driven.

A moving coil phono section that overloads with 1mV from the cartridge is a phono section with poor overload characteristics, FWIW.

The most common mistake with a phono cartridge is to set tracking force at the lightest end of the cartridge spec. Set the catridge at the upper end of the range and see if the problem goes away. You do damage to stylus and record with mistracking at too light a pressure.

I believe companies set their tracking forces too low for fear of scaring away customers.
I always start at or very near the top recomended force and often find best sound is .5 gram above that.

Atmasphere
A moving coil phono section that overloads with 1mV from the cartridge is a phono section with poor overload characteristics, FWIW.

Atmasphere,
It surely cannot be true. Perhaps you or Al can elaborate, but overloading is a function of the cartridge's output AND the phono stage's gain/sensitivity setting, isn't it? Theoretically, you could probably overload with a low output MC cart if you have a gain mismatch large enough. From your post, it sounds like you can only overload with MM carts.

I'm always baffled how much gain matching is ignored in discussions on this forum. This thread is a good example. On my modest (compared to many A-goner) system, a difference of a few dB between an optimal and sub-optimal gain setting can easily be heard. The sound becomes unpleasantly shrill and just sounds too loud even at lower volume settings. 55 dB of gain with a cartridge with an output of 1.05 mV is a huge mismatch under most circumstances, in my opinion and experience. Perhaps with a passive line stage it may be ok, but never an active one. I'd guess anything above 50 dB would be too much gain for this cart. I have a Hall & Oates record that's recorded so hot that it sounds just too loud even on the setting that works with every other record. I'd look into it first.